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self. God - Z
knows, he cared but little for
that! What he objected to was to be
taken away, to 1x3 separated from his
brother, and that others should be at his
side, while he would be far, far away.
He smothered the avowal that scorched
his very lips, so deep seated was the hor¬
ror with which he looked upon himself,
and when they questioned him, he found
courage enough to lie.
He said he had found his brother, lying
wounded by the roadside, and had car¬
ried him there; that was really all he
knew about it. And as the doctor looked
at him, he sat down, and hid his face in
his hands, fearing that liis crime would
be discovered in his eyes.
John became more quiet. He had not
recovered consciousness, but, as he no
longer moaned, the dressing of his wound
had doubtless afforded him relief.
The physician and the sisters withdrew,
going to other sufferers, leaving John
alone at the side of his brother.
He had seated himself on the straw,
watching the least movement, catching
the feeblest sigh, awaiting with untold
agony the first symptoms of returning
life.
From time to time he would lean over,
clasping his rough hands together as he
hud not done for many a day, muttering
fragments of prayer that he had long
thought forgotten, and, when words
failed him, when he no longer knew what
to say, he would exclaim: “Oh! brother,
hr* thcr, say that you forgive me!”
* * * * >f *
PUL- ' j a little while John A been get
tiiiGT restless. He accrued to J© trying to
p, ’!• lip. i I i. fee r \\ u* contracted
as if he were mailing iLrva ioufl efforts,
and he murmured words, the meaning
of which his brother vainly tried to under
stand. The frightened workman called the
doctor, who knit his brows as he passed
his aims around the wounded man and
gently raised him up. This afforded a
slight relief, but soon the choking re¬
turned.
The physician shrugged his shoulders
m a way that plainly intimated that there
was no more hope. One of the sisters
knelt down and prayed in a low tone.
All at once, the poor soldier, uttering a
hoarse cry, shuddered convulsively. His
eyes became glazed. He was dead.
Petor felt that he was losing his senses;
lic could not believe that all was over,
Ho lay down at hie brother’s side, draw¬
ing nearer and nearer, and with fixed
look and trembling lips, he still mur¬
mured mechanically:
“John, say that you forgive me!”
Then, as the doctor attempted to spread
a blanket over the body, the workman
stopped him, and, raising his head, he
said, in a voice that had nothing human
in it, “Let him be. He is my brother,
you know, and it was I who killed him. ”
‘ ‘He is delirious, ’ ’ murmured the sister.
Peter added softly:
“Yes, ’twas I. You may believe me,
and send for the gendarmes. Now that
he is dead, I don’t mind being taken
away. Go ahead. I shall await them
here’.”—Emil Roustan. Translated for
Tho Times-Democrat.
Poisoning 1 by Nutmeg.
A case of poisoning by nutmeg is re¬
corded in The British Medical Journal,
. winch nutmeg had , , been eaten , by
m one a
patient as a cure for diarrhea. It caused
him to become giddy, stupid, and very
drowsy all next day. The narcotic
properties of these seeds, as of Others of
the same natural order, do not appear to
be generally known, and seem worthy of
investigation.— Chicago Times.
A shorthorn , bull and a valuable staUion
got into a quarrel at \V ellsvilie, O. The stal
lion, ammal, vuiivu “ifi'l'} v.us a Clydesdale < onsn^rable and pluck a beautiful and for
haViitmrnSn JP ^ ^
huge animals. All efforts » to . wpaiuto the ,
brutes were lutile, an continued
Sinmstontly . o. Wrrscir J v ^ in a vital sdoL killind kUUng
INDORSEMENT OF JOHN.
EXPLANATORY NOTES BY REV.
L. HAYS, D. D., LL. D.
L,i:hhoii VII of the International
(Fourth Quarter) for Sunday, Nov.
Text of the Lesson, Matt, xi,
Golden Text, John v, 35.
John’s discouragement must have been
treme as month after month he lay in
under Herod’s oppressive government.
strange meditations he must have had in
prison! He could look back on no
fulness that deserved the reproof of his
moval from public activity. In no case
he sought to thrust himself into
to the exclusion of Christ. It would not be
strange, then, if in his loneliness there should
be times when his faith would waver. He
might well say, Surely if Jesus is the Mes¬
siah whose forerunner I really was, and he
has the miraculous power of which I hear so
much, ho will speedily come to my deliver¬
ance. It seems to have been out of this spirit
of discouragement under Christ’s neglect
that John sent these messengers (v. 2, 3). It
would have been a solace to know that his
imprisonment was part of the programme,
and that, after all, all was right.
Christ’s methods.—Christ rarely gave di¬
rect replies. One difference between a direct
reply and a statement of evidence is this: A
direct reply assumes responsibility on the
part of the person giving it; a statement of
evidence leaves the responsibility on the per¬
son to whom the evidence is submitted. If
Christ had simply said “yes,” John could
fairly have said, “Then I have no further
responsibility in the matter.” This was not
Christ’s purpose with John any more than it
is with us. How many have wished that
God would, by an audible voice from heaven,
tell them just what they ought to do? If he
did, however, that would relieve them of the
responsibility of determining their duty; and
this is just what God lays on every one of us.
Christ shuts John up to act upon the evi
donee the facts afforded as to the Messiah
Shi ^
ttrious tran S lations.-This fact is curi
ously nUn<led to by tho throe different trans
i a tions which in various editions of the Eng
Hsh Bible have been given to the sentence,
“The poor have the Gospel preached to
them.” A very early English Bible has it,
“Poor men have taken to preaching the Gos
pel;” another translation was, “Poor men re¬
ceive the Gospel;” now we have it, “The poor
have the Gospel preached to them.”
Christ’s estimate of John.—When John’s
messengers had departed, Jesus turned to tne
multitude and discussed John. There is a
keen criticism upon one phase of human na
ture in Christ’s question (v. <)> ‘ What went
ye out to see?” Multitudes find what they
detormine beforehand that they will find.
They find a prophet when they go out to seek
a prophet, and a reed shaken with the wind
when they go to look for it, and a man
clothed in soft raiment when they have con¬
demned him for that beforehand. Christ’s
question suggests a re-examination of their
preconceived opinions and a re-examination
of John s elaiins to a divine commission.
As to John, each step is a reproof of some
popular prejudice and an indorsement of
John. A reed shaken with the wind was
then and is still a metaphorical name for an
undecided and irresolute man. Those who
looked for such indecision in John were won
drously mistaken, from King Herod down
through all the rest. So those who made
temporal ease and comfort a proof of divine
favor were sadly mistaken in John’s case,
His raiment was camel’s hair, his girdle
leather and his food locusts and wild honey,
His life was hard, but his mission was sub
lime. So those who had thrown around the
Old Testament prophets their imaginary halo
°f unreality were much disappointed at
John’s directness and simplicity. The Saviour,
however, puts him before all the prophets
whom the Jews then so highly glorified.
Blood earnestness.—Earnest people nearly
ai ways succeed, and usually deserve success,
The indifferent and slovenly never succeed
^^pt when success is thrust upon them. In
^ there have been large numbers who
admitted that the question of all questions
was the question of religion. The crowds
that gathered around John (Luke iii, 1-18)
were c ^ ass * ^ was not true of
them that their earnestness carried them
vnrougn repentance of sin into a
life. The earnest ones, however, did
persevere through all obstacles and
enter into the kingdom of God. It is not in
reproof, therefore, that tho Saviour says (v.
12), “The kingdom of heaven suffereth vio
lence, and the violent take it by force.” It
is precisely that holy violence that is needed
to enter into the kingdom and spread abroad
the kingdom.
Elias already here.—\ erso 13 calls attorn
tio:i to tho difference between John’s utter
ances and tho utterances of tho Old Testa
ment prophets. They all point to something
yet to come. John, howerer, pointed re that
which had already com. and was now pres
eut
Verse 14, like verse 10, is an explicit inter
pretation of John’s mission. It is also an im*
plicit interpretation of Christ’s own mission.
If John was Elias, then Jesus was the Mes
siah. Tbe two offices are not separated in
prophecy, and could not be separate In ful¬
fillment.
HINTS FOR PRIMARY CLASSES.
BY ALICE W. KNOX.
The persons in this lesson are John and his
disciples, Jesus and the multitudes.
State that John was in prison, not for any
wrong doing, but for confessing and teaching
Christ and faithfully rebuking sin. Herod,
the king, had “laid hold on John and bound
him and put him in prison,” etc.
The disciples of John used to visit him and
tell him of what things they had seen and
heard outside the prison. Among other
things they told John about the wonderful
works of Jesus. (Ask the children to repeat
some of those works.)
These stories seemed very remarkable to
John, and ho sent two of his disciples to say,
“Art thou he?” etc. (See v. 3.) In the word
which Jesus sent back he speaks of six things
to prove that he was the Christ.
1. The blind receive their sight.—Give ex
amples, as in Matt, ix, 30; xii, 22; xx, 34;
Mark viii, 23; John ix, 7. Isaiah had fore
told that Jesus would do such works more
than 700 years before Christ was born.
2. The lame walk.—(See Matt, xxi, 14;
Luke vii, 22.)
3. The lepers are cleansed.—To see the
frightful lepers in India, Palestine and other
lands where this dreadful disease prevails
enables one to realize more fully how wonder¬
ful such cures were. For instances see Matt,
viii, 3; Mark i, 40-42; Luke v, 13; xvii, 14.
4. The deaf hear.—Children who cannot
hear cannot learn to talk. A young father
and mother began to fear that their baby boy
was deaf. Neither spoke of it to the other,
but each watched anxiously, and tried ex¬
periments to test the child’s hearing when
alone with it. At length their anxiety be
came so great and their fear so strong that,
they talked together about it, and decided to
ft re a pistol in the room to see whether the
child would notice that loud sound. Alas!
the little creature kept on with its play with
ou ^ paying the least attention to the noise.
That settled it, and together the parents wept
an( j mourned. Imagine, if possible, how
g rea t their joy would have been if by a word
some’ noted physician had made that deaf
child able to hear. But Jesus made the deaf
to hear. (See Mark vii, 85; ix, 25.)
5. The dead are raised.—Most wonderful of
a ll! The widow’s only son, and the only
brother of the two loving sisters, are in
stances. (See Matt, ix, 25; Mark v, 41;
Luke vii, 14; viii, 55; John xi.)
6. The poor have the Gospel preached to
them.—Jesus came to bring good tidings of
great joy to all people—the rich and poor,
the high and low. All the world over, the
poor are more ready to believe on Christ than
the rich are. To them the Gospel is good
news for this life and also for the world to
come. The rich are but a very small part of
the world’s people. Where there are thou
sands of the rich, there are millions of the
poor. This is very apparent in Oriental
where most of the people are distress
inglypoor. Ten cents is thought to be good
p a yfor a day’s work. Many men who till
the land for others cannot afford to eat the
rice they raise, but they eat millet, and pick
the kernels of corn from the cob after it has
b^ baked hard and dry. They live in mud
cab ins without windows, and no place for
except a hole in the ground. For drees
they wrap around the body a strip of cloth; »
f or beds thev use rough b boai'ds or the
bare ground.* In India thousands have
no home at all. In Bombay they go to roost
like chickens on the curbstones of the streets.
It is a sad sight to see long lines of the poor
ci eatures thus seated for t rhi When
they hear the sound of sinyi SOI band
of Christians who have c * eld an
open air meeting for thei h ue h< ' gather
around and listen to the C
with the greatest interest ft}
places in Bombay where < 4 t • narics
their native helpers hold f r.i.v' u s uc
multitudes listen and man v r - Christ.
! The change which conver o r Jras in these
poor creatures is marvelt lioness
they go to industry, from Ida to cleanliness,
from deepest gloom and p , erfcy to joy and
*
j comfort.
Bat lot none dare to pray ,'or tb-,, who do
1 not also give and work as awh pombte
i The poor are calling aloud all o-er the .vorla
for the Gospel. ‘ * Why did you not ■ • • ai i d
, „ . . °“
| ^kma. us Nv hj did not a yo; p ° 01 motoei VV01 ;T tei mv m
1
mother? said the little d uig Iumiiui gir .—
* Sunday School World,
In Old Kentu« .y T»»’
In general the laws were perhaps the
est. Some it is vital to he subject in 1
not to pass over. If slaw ; were inhum .,nly
treated by their owner or o t supplied with
proper food and clothin they could be
taken from him and sold V a > setter .r aster,
This law was not inoperati ' . 1 he. re
mind tho instance of a family who lost txu-ir
negroes in this way, were socially dis£ raced,
and left their neighborhood. If the own r
of a slave had bought him on conditi .n f
not selling him out of the couaty, or irb tt »
southern states, or so as tc separate him t com
his family, lie could be sued for violati- i of
contract. This law show the op; .sitk u of
the better class of Kentu :y masters tc the
slave trade, and their pec ar regar fo> the
family ties of their negroc
In the earliest Kentucky newspapers ' ill
be found advertisements >f the sac* of
negroes on condition that they would bf
bought and kept within the county or the
state. It was within chancery jurisdiction
to prevent the separation of families. Tho
case may be mentioned of > master who was
tried by his church for necessarily sepa
rating a husband from hi wife. Sometimes
slaves who had been libei ated and had gone
to Canada voluntarily re timed into service
under their former mi iters. Lest these
should be overreached th< v were to bo
aside and examined by th< m.‘ art to . t> un
they understood the coi -v'on >v their
own action and were free oru impr per con
traint. On the other bar 1, u lave had a
right to his freedom lit -,!d file a bill
chancery and enforce Ids vi:v-arV assent
thereto.—James Lane AI n in The Century
A Lawyer Applies for n Pension.
An Indiana soldier, who fi-.s an apyi
for a pension pending, in a. iffidav' <-k ; •
the circumstances under v ieh tin injv
was incurred as follows: “T at while o 1
of duty in front of Petersbu rg, Va., v U
skirmish line, by the gross carelessnes' . >
immoral conduct of the enemy and wi v<
fault on his part, he then and there, in in
year 1S65, by the gross and willful care • ^
ness of the Confederate t ’oops, was shot a
wounded through the right forearm by r j
Confederate troops to his 1 leroetual
—Washington Cor. Cincium i Enquirer. ,
Practice Make» Perfect.
Stranger (who has chanced in to a church
wedding)—What perfect seif possession tha
bride displays!
Guest—Yes, sir. She boen married
three times before.—New ' >rk Su
Be Sure and K t » The >.
A dangerous counter if
dollar is made of eroun
with tin lead and otl ia\
^erienced bank tel lei 9
detect rmi* te •
rrlncednllnrc Qr o hrit-r t a t/
® ‘
f .
P
, . p .. , umale, « the go!
a e 41
spilt. I hey have the metaib
genuine ^ dollar, the
are ix-rrc
of nearly the exact weight
phia Call.
_
No System Aboi t '
“Bridget, you are never in it
when I want you. How is uf
“Sure, mum, it's for the rai^ there j
tellin’ when you’re a-wenth me.*’
Epoch.
